Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Too bad the Liturgy doesn't recognize Mardi Gras! Can you imagine the special readings we might get? And yet the readings we "happened" to get on this Tuesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time turn out to be so fitting. Although not at first glance.
I have to admit that when I was preparing for my meditation last night, I kind of sighed. Tobit again? I just don't know how to mine the depths of a cute story where all the good stuff comes at the end--which we won't be seeing until some time in June when Ordinary Time picks up again. And yet there is a commonality with today's very "get-ready-for-Lent" Gospel of "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God." Because in today's passage from Tobit, the narrator, newly blind and somewhat paranoid, insists that his wife give back the goat she had received as a bonus for her work. "Give it back to the owners!" he demanded.
Tomorrow we will hear from Jesus what we are supposed to "give" for Lent. It won't be a surprise: Give to Caesar what is Caesar; to God what is God. Render to each his due. Do justice.

Well, it's still Mardi Gras, and the community invited our Holy Family members, Bill and Madeline, for evening prayer and dinner. Nothing fancy, but it will at least sport the day's colors. That's right: purple, green and gold dinner. (Don't ask.)

3 comments:

Nope. Although we had King Cake, too. After Hurricane Katrina sent so many New Orleanians up here, Chicago bakeries started carrying them (only on Mardi Gras day, not for the whole King Cake season). The dinner was purple (beets and parsnips cooked with Indian spices), green (cabbage) and gold (ground turkey cooked with curry powder and extra turmeric). Not a gourmet meal by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it fit the day's color scheme!

YUK The mere mention of the gross ingestibules in celebration of MardiGras colors made me sigh for the beginning of forty days of fast. The ashes on my forehead made me proud of my outward sign of faith.

Nunblogger

Catholic sister (nun) of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international community founded in 1915 for evangelization in the world of communication. Singer, writer and speaker for Pauline Books & Media (US) currently working on digital projects for my community and its publishing ministry.